Title: Danse Macabre Undone

Author: Gatecrasher12

Word Count: 3149

Genre: Action/Romance/Drama/General

Game: Final Fantasy 10-2

Published Date: 01/28/10

Author's Note: I don't have much to say really. In this chapter I've described the fayth in their human appearance, so if anyone needs help in visualization how the fayth look, just go find their picture on photobucket or flickr

Chapter Three: Day of SIN

"This… can not be." the fayth of Aeon Bahamut spoke, around him the remaining nine fayth of the Aeons and the fayth of Zanarkand gasped and cried out in shock and horror at the sight before them. Their world, The Farplane, was crumbling under their very feet. Many of the Pyreflies were soaring towards the Core Sphere, which had lost almost half of its original size and was continuing to shrink, even now, little by little.

Bahamut had already sent out Anima and Yojimbo to scout the area around the Core Sphere when he noticed its sudden shift in size and shape as well as the unexpected change in the Pyreflies' behavior. However, between the time he had sent them out and now, the entirety of the Farplane had begun to tear itself apart.

"What the fuck is going on?!" shouted the most fiery and quick tempered of the Aeon fayth, Ifrit. Once a proud warrior of Kilika Island with the appearance of a young man in his mid-twenties with layered sandy blond hair and flame tattooed tanned skin, wearing only a pair of tattered red and orange shorts with a yellow sash, brown sandals, decorative gold wristbands with red tassels, and a necklace of brown and gold prayer beads, also with red tassels. Ifrit turned his amber eyes, his left eye sporting a slashed scar running down it but not hampering its sight, down to the leader of the Aeons. "Well, oh 'fearless Dragon King'? Why the hell is the Farplane coming apart like a dropped vase?!"

"Hey, qui' antag'nizin' Bahamut, ya overgrown mutant mutt from hell!" shouted as girl, he drawl announcing her Besaidian origin, who appeared somewhere in her mid-late teens with shoulder length red-brown hair and pale yellow eyes. She wore a black, sleeveless shirt with sharp yellow designs that left her belly exposed and a loosely hanging red-pink and blue island skirt and matching bandana. She wore no shoes, only gold anklets, bangles, and a hoop link chain around her waist. "Ya can' really 'xpect him to kno' what' 'appen'n, ya? Stupid dog!"

Ifrit snapped around to yell at the younger fayth, fire burning around him, "What was that?! You're one to talk about mutants, you pint-sized, Bird-brained-"

"ENOUGH!" thundered another voice loudly as a bolt of lighting struck the ground between the two island native fayth, making them jump away. Physically this fayth was the largest and oldest of them all; his body was hard built like a man in his mid-late thirties yet the age lines on his face, white hair, and trimmed goatee spoke of someone older. "Both of you shame yourselves and your fellows! We stand in the face of crisis, this is no time for yet another of your petty squabbles!" he admonished harshly.

Ixion, the Thunder Horse in human form, wore clothes somewhat reminiscent to that of ancient Roman or Greek garb; a knee length white, blue trimmed chiton that hung off one shoulder with matching pants and a long grey tasseled chlamys (cape) draped down his back, blue boots with grey straps, and a large gold hexagonal bangle on his right arm. His hair was short and styled not too dissimilar to Wakka's, only less gravity defying, but had four long locks of hair framing his face and neck, bound by gold and blue hair clamps.

Having properly cowed the forever clashing southern islanders, Ixion turned his steel grey eyes to the envoy of the fayth. "Bahamut, you are most knowledgeable of the Farplane's inner workings. We beseech your council."

Bahamut frowned, his small hands fisted at his sides. "Just before what happed with Shuyin, I had noticed an oddity with the Core Sphere. I was uncertain then, and I had no time to actually study the irregularities before we were captured, but I know now. Someone has been draining the Core."

The surrounding fayth gasped in dread. If the Core were to ever collapse, all of the Farplane, and Spira by proxy, would tear itself apart. The group of fayth buzzed loudly in frantic conversation, quickly growing more and more angry and panicked with each passing moment.

It was then Shiva stepped forward. "Silence!" she shouted over the crowd with all the regal dignity and firmness of royalty, sending a blast of her icy energy at her fellow fayth. Quiet immediately came over the gathered spirits. "We have much to do and little time! We shall go to the Core and find out what-" Shiva had been cut off by a familiar but sudden voice yelling in the distance.

"HEY!" the whole group turned to see the fayth of Anime and Yojimbo with his dog Daigoro slowly making their way to them. The condition of which they returned cast a sense of dread over all the fayth. The sword for hire was limping towards them as he held his injured dog tucked under one arm, the man's beloved Zanmato katana was being carried by Anime as she supported most of the older fayth's weight. His white-purple hakama and bright orange and yellow cloak were a mess. His customary and favored sondogasa that he always wore was missing, leaving his long dark brown hair hanging mostly loose from its ponytail. Anime looked tired and more than a little worse for ware but still better than Yojimbo as her blue and white dress was torn, frayed, and singed all over while bruises, burns, and cuts decorated her normally flawless skin. Her dark hair covered her face, but tear tracks became more noticeable as they came closer to the gathered fayth.

Shiva was among the first to react along with Cindy of the Magus Sisters. "Yojimbo! Anima! What happened to you?"

Yojimbo hissed in pain as Shiva gently wrapped an arm around his bruised ribs and helped him sit against a nearby boulder, noticing for the first time how sodden the three of them were, as Cindy took Daigoro and placed the whimpering canine next to his master. Mindy had come up and helped sit and console the distraught looking Anima.

Cindy pushed the frilly layered skirt of her blue and gold trimmed dress under her before beginning to cast her White Curative Magic. "Such damage," Cindy examined the younger fayth as her healing light mended and eased his pain. "Fayth are highly resistant to injury. What could be strong enough to hurt you so?"

He spat a wad of blood before saying, "That bastard did this… and look at what he did to Daigoro! " he groused, gently running his hand through the blood matted fur of his faithful companion. "If we were not already dead he would have killed us!"

Sandy, the oldest of the Magus Sisters, noticed how Anima flinched at Yojimbo's words. "Anima, sweetheart, yah know who this mercenary is talking about." she stated rather than asked. Her arms crossed under her red, leather clad bust and hardened blue eyes bore into the youngest of the fayth.

Anima looked up at the woman in the tight and short cut red leather version of temple robes and tall, high heeled boots. While Sandy's voice was not accusatory, her eyes held non of her usual sly playfulness. She was serious and had the dangerous predatory edge of the mantis her Aeon was modeled after. She then looked to the blond, sunshine-yellow and black striped robed Mindy, who was looking at her with worry and curiosity, before saying, "It… it was Seymour, my foolish, foolish son."

"The little lunatic, he actually did it." Yojimbo looked up at his brethren, his brown eyes filled with anger, disbelief, and worry, as Cindy finished healing him and his dog. "Seymour is rebuilding SIN."

Surprise made all eyes on Anima and Yojimbo widened.

o0O0o

FLASHBACK

"AARRGGHH!" Yojimbo screamed in pain as he was thrown back against a nearby rock face, causing the stone to crack, Daigoro landing in a painfully dusty skid at his side. Their Aeon shapes burst into light, leaving their fayth forms bare.

"Yojimbo! Daigoro!" Anima cried as she ran to them. She kneeled beside them, giving them a quick look over, assessing the amount of damage they received, before turning to the assailant. "Why are you doing this?! Why do you refuse to be at peace and stop all this madness?!"

Before the fayth, floating several feet off the ground in front of a slowing dwindling Core Sphere and cent of an amass of thousands of swirling Pyreflies, was the son of Anima and Jyscal Guado, the former Measter Seymour. His body had transformed into that of its last and most powerful shape before his sending, he was in the for of Seymour Omnis. The now transparent and glowing blue haired man smiled at the woman he called mother and said, "The answer is simple, dear mother," the blue haired man said. "I want to release Spira from the feeling of sorrow, to save it from itself. But in order to do that, I needed power, enough power to purge an entire world." he explained. "The hearts of the people are fickle and volatile, their views so often clash with one another that they create wars. SIN was the result of one such war and created a spiral of death that lasted a millennia."

"SIN is gone now, and the spiral of death with it! Summoner Yuna's Eternal Calm-"

"Lady Yuna's Eternal Calm is naught but a fragile dream easily shattered!" Seymour cut Anima off with a snarl at the mention of the High Summoner. He calmed himself before continuing, "The people are ungrateful fools and have already proven that with their recent actions. They are like lost Chocobos and I am their Sheppard. I will lead them into the silent darkness of ever lasting oblivion and to a true Eternal Calm."

Anima stood and yelled. "You do not have the right to decide their fates!"

"Never the less, I shall grant them eternal sleep." The dead Guado held out the long digits of his hand to the woman and said, "Join with me, my dearest mother, and I shall overlook your offenses against me. The strength of your Aeon is great, nearly rival to SIN's. Together, with SIN as our armor and vessel, we would reap the life of this world and every other we come across… All you need do is take my hand, and we will be a family again, as we should."

Next to Anima, Yojimbo had managed to pull himself into a kneeling position, using his katana as his support. He gave a strained chuckle at Seymour's words. "You… really are… some piece of work… I weep in sympathy for Anima. Her son… a child born of love… has become her nightmare in her absence; a murderer… with a twisted sense of reality." the ronin panted out, Daigoro pawed the ground and growled in agreement.

Seymour frowned, his eyes narrowed as his anger at the downed Aeon boiling. He raised his hand, his Mortiphasms spinning and landing on three of the yellow seals for lightning and the red seal of fire. A ball of condensed lightning formed in his hand. "Be gone, irritant. Your presence here has grown tiresome." The ball of lightning launched from his outstretched hand.

Yojimbo clenched his teeth, he refused to close his eyes like a coward, as he watch his destruction come careening towards him. His body was too numb to dodge properly, and he would never even begin to think of abandoning his dog if he could move. He was also too low on mana and he knew only the bare basics of the White Arts to even attempt to cast anything strong enough to protect himself. 'If I am going to die here,' Yojimbo thought to himself as the attack drew closer, 'then I will look death in the face once more and die with honor, like a true warrior.'

"NO!" Anima was suddenly in front of Yojimbo, using her back as a protective shield. She screamed when the lighting crashed into her, arcs of magical electricity forming a torturous electric cage around her. The area was illuminated in white-yellow light as Yojimbo watched in shock as the young fayth took the attack meant for him.

"Anima!" he cried out as the magical attack lost its power, leaving behind a badly singed and smoking Anima.

The fayth of the Dark Aeon panted as she swayed but managed to take a step forward, catching herself before she fell to the ground. Anima may be the youngest of the fayth but she was one of the strongest, and pain meant very little to her and would not hold her down. She was too used to it.

Seymour sneered at his mother's actions. "I see now," he said, his Mortiphasms spun again, this time landing on a pair of fire and ice seals, allowing his to perform a Double Cast. Anima dipped into her mana reserves and threw up a NulFrost and NulBlaze protection she learned during her travels with Yuna when she saw his Mortiphasms move. Dozens of fireballs the size of Blitzballs bombarded and exploded against a wall of Anima's protective red NulBlaze.

"You oppose me yet again!" he sent a hail of ice spears next.

A white ball of anti-elemental magic expanded and shielded the three fayth from the frozen spikes.

"So be it, if you will not stand with me, then you will parish with the rest of Spira!" he yelled over the roar of his magically conjured tidal wave.

The two human fayths' eyes widened 'When did he cast that?!' they wondered him unison. They looked at his Mortiphasms and saw that all four had rotated again, landing on four water seals. Anima poured in as much mana as fast as she could to cast NulTide just as the crushing wave of water crashed.

Seymour looked at the now empty field before him with stoic eyes and an indifferent face. He no longer cared for the woman who bore him into life. She had promised him her power and protection, but she had betrayed him. So now the half-Guado washed his hands of her and didn't bother with the thought of whether she and Yojimbo survived his attack or not, he had more important things to think of. Seymour turned and smirked at the Core, hovering innocently and almost half drained of its rich energy. Just a little longer and he would have finally achieved his greatest dream.

END FLASHBACK

o0O0o

"My fellow fayth," Bahamut called, causing everyone to turn to him, "hear me! We've little precious time to spare, so we Aeon fayth will go to the Core to stop Seymour! But if we fail… we may have to invoke the most forbidden of all our rituals." Many of the fayth were immediately up in arms against Bahamut's suggestion.

"Surely there are other avenues which we may explore?!"" Ixion asked.

"Oi, Bahamut, 'ave ya gone daft?!" Valefor added

The child fayth shook his hooded head. "No, but I would rather face the consequences of the ritual than to watch both realms of our world fade into oblivion because of one misguided man's lust for power." It was with this proclamation that the fayth around Bahamut began to slowly, grudgingly agree with the dragon. Bahamut turned away as began to envelop him and his summoning circle appeared. "I am going now." with a flash, the great dragon king emerge in all his dark glory, sapphire blue eyes glowing. "FOLLOW ME IF YOU WISH," he said to the Aeon fayth, his voice coming out as a guttural growl, before looking to the mass of Zanarkand fayth, "BUT THE REST OF YOU WILL PREPARE THE RUTUAL IF OUR EFFORTS TO AVERT DESASTER IS VAIN." The large drake spread his wings and took off.

"Tch, can't say I'm really shocked about all this." Ifrit crossed his arms, a grim look of acknowledgement and anticipation on his face as flames danced and grew around him. "But that wretched fool has just gambled away the last of his good fortune." The great demonic looking hound of fire then appeared. Ifrit turned his horned head towards a tearful Anima and said, "SORRY ANIMA, BUT YOUR BRAT IS JUST TOO AMBITIOUS FOR HIS OWN GOOD." then the Kilikan left, quickly followed by the other transformed Aeons until only Anima and a transformed Mindy the Magus Sisters was left. The fayth of Zanarkand moved away to find larger, more stable grounds to prepare their ritual.

"Anima," the little bee buzzed. "You don't have to come if you don't feel like you can fight him."

The brunette looked at the older, smaller Aeon, giving her a watery smile. "This is my fault," she cried, "If I had only… I should've-"

"Now that's enough of that kind of thinking!" Mindy yelled, huffing as she stomped a clawed foot. Her insectoid wings buzzed loudly as she lifted off the ground to stare the younger female in the eyes, he hand on her hips. "Now listen here. When you gave yourself to become a fayth and Seymour's Aeon, you became his sword and shield. As the wielder, he misused the power you entrusted to him when he got greedy and started sacrificing and hurting people for a warped dream. He even killed the man you loved, his own father, good Measter Jyscal." Mindy then crossed her arms, the bee Aeon looked at the woman seriously, watching her wince at the mention of her husband. "I know its hard, but you've already faced him once in battle. We let him be when he died, but he has proven he can not be trusted to be at peace even in death."

Anima said nothing for a long moment before she stood up and nodded. "I …I understand." she said as she rubbed tears from her eyes. "My son has become cruel and cold and refused to repent for his sins in life and death. I have caused him to become this way, so I will atone for that. …It will be hard …and painful, but I am forced discipline my unruly boy as his mother once more." Anima looked at Mindy with conviction. "Let's go, to save the world from Seymour again."

Mindy gave a grim nod. She picked up the woman, and together, they flew at the bee's top speed to the battle field ahead where explosions were erupting like fireworks. Anima's dark energy of the Underworld swirled around her in waiting.